Right-wing populism thrives on a sense of grievance. The grievance, whatever it may be, fosters a feeling of resentment, which then finds expression at the ballot box in a vote for a populist, more often than not, right-wing party.
These parties have taken various forms in the last 10 years, but the greatest populist of the age, Donald Trump, came to power by essentially capturing an existing party. We all know the drill by now. The Donald, however implausibly to some, posed successfully as a tribune of the people, avenging them against a corrupt self-regarding establishment.
Nigel Farage’s case is different. He created his own party and, contrary to what a lot of the commentary has claimed, has never had any interest whatsoever in joining the Conservative Party. What would be the point? He can be king of his own self-built castle as leader of Reform UK.
His whole brand is associated with his being a bit of a maverick, a political gadfly, goading and provoking the established parties. Such a brand would be killed at a stroke if he were to join the Tories.
It is this sense of grievance, the feeling that you simply can’t trust politicians, that makes the Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) issue potentially so damaging for the Government and possibly so helpful to Reform.
Sir Keir Starmer’s change of heart in this issue was one of the most startling U-turns I’ve seen in politics. It was comparable to the Liberal Democrats voting in the House of Commons to increase tuition fees, as coalition partners of the Conservatives in government, when they had campaigned to abolish those fees in opposition. This all happened at the end of 2010. The Liberal Democrats took 14 years to recover.
Starmer at the last PMQs sounded very much like a Tory minister from the last government. I know this because I’d used those very lines myself. The Waspi women knew about the change in pension age, Starmer said. He also said, with some justification, that there was no money to compensate them.
This was not what he said when he was in opposition. He shamelessly exploited the vulnerability of the Waspi women, born in the 1950s, who had been left out of pocket when the retirement age for women was put up from 60 to 65.
This simply equalised the age at which both men and women received their state pension, an anomaly which had existed since 1948. Yet the feeling of being wronged persisted among the women who campaigned on the issue.
Starmer’s U-turn naturally undermines what little trust we still have in politicians. It also provides Farage and his fellow populists with a perfect issue on which to campaign. “See, you can’t trust any of them,” he will say. That message will be increasingly resonant as the Government casually jettisons many of the causes they espoused in opposition.
Populism is almost always framed as a revolt against the elites. The elites, as the populist narrative goes, are out of touch, arrogant and wholly duplicitous. There is also the suspicion that the elites despise the populace. They are in politics for the basest of motives and are nakedly self-interested.
I think this narrative is simplistic and false and yet it is perceived to be true by millions of people in this country. This is unfortunate.
The populists will exploit those feelings. Angela Rayner, in the comfort of opposition, asserted that the then government had “failed” these women. Starmer was happy to be photographed with them and publicly said there should be an end to the injustice. The heavy implication was that he would display the fairness and generosity the Tories had failed to show.
At that time, he oozed moral virtue and self righteousness. In Government, Sir Keir’s breezy and cynical indifference to the women’s campaign has opened the door for Farage and his followers to saunter in.
Kwasi Kwarteng is a former Conservative MP. He served as chancellor of the exchequer between September and October 2022 under Liz Truss
